Rooney Mara

Elle January 2016

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)

'There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow.' Here, Yeats inverts the day: the sun shines (glimmers) at midnight at noon is the color of a moon lit dark sky (purple). The topsy turvey day represents the mystical or transcendence that will bring him peace. Even when he is on 'the pavements grey,' possibly, probably, London, he can, through this mystical union, be back to where he is productive, 'nine bean-rows will I have there ...' and in tune to the natural world.

The lovely purple shade on the cover of January's Elle, reminded me of Yeats' purple glow. And the lovely Gucci dress that Rooney Mara is wearing appears transcendent of reality. The cutouts of the dress look almost cartoon like- the gold bow/ruffles and epaulets especially. It is transcendent.